Military comments on being Taliban in Medal of Honor

This October (2010), Electronic Arts’ will release its latest Medal of Honor (MoH) game, for the PC, XBox 360, and Playstation 3. The biggest change for the series is that it will finally leave the World War II theater and head for a modern world area of operations: Afghanistan.

While MoH is certainly overdue for a change of scenery, skipping over some 60 years of conflicts to something so recent – ongoing, even – is a surprisingly bold move, one that might have consequences so far unseen in the video game world.

One of the known concerns is the possible effect this game might have on our military troops. It might be a bit unsettling, after all, coming home from fighting in Afghanistan and loading up a game to play as an actual Taliban member, shooting at animated characters wearing the uniforms of US military personnel.

Looks like this won’t be an issue, as a recent interview at gamrfeed with nine troopers revealed that all of the interviewees have no difficulty separating what goes on in a game, even a violent and realistic game, and what goes on in the real world. That said, a few did express some concern that playing a whole campaign as a Taliban member could reasonably be considered offensive, even if ultimately the servicemen consider it “just a game.”

As long as the game shows our troops in a respectful and positive light, the soldiers had no issues with Taliban characters and that seems a pretty fair way to look at it.

While a game based on a current war does strike me as a bit too cutting edge, games based on Vietnam came out within a few years of that war ending, so if this type of thing really caused problems, we would have seen it by now.

That said, the US military has always been careful to make sure our troops have little sympathy for the enemy, and to not train our troops to shoot at guys wearing US uniforms.

In America’s Army, for example, you never shoot at anyone wearing a US military uniform. Instead, the enemy is always seen as wearing terrorist outfits, while your friends wear uniforms (your enemies, likewise, see themselves as a proper military and you and your allies as wearing terrorist outfits). While inadvertently a commentary on modern politics, nobody’s ever had a problem with it, even with quirky scenarios like “terrorists are guarding an oil pipeline but you and your army buddies are going to blow it up”.

Read [gamrFeed] Site [Medal of Honor]